Ef: A Fairy Tale of The Two. - Gameplay

Gameplay

The gameplay requires little interaction from the player as most of the duration of the game is spent simply reading the text that appears on the screen which represents either dialogue between the various characters or the inner thoughts of the protagonist. The player has a chance to assume the role of four protagonists, two in each Ef: The First Tale and Ef: The Latter Tale. Each protagonist is paired with a heroine, and each scenario in the original PC versions of the visual novels includes scenes with sexual content. These scenes are removed or modified in the PlayStation 2 port.

Every so often, the player will come to a point where he or she is given the chance to choose from multiple options. The time between these points is variable and can occur anywhere from a minute to much longer. Gameplay pauses at these points and depending on which choice the player makes, the plot will progress in a specific direction. There are four main plot lines that the player will have the chance to experience, one for each of the heroines in the story. To view all plot lines, the player will have to replay the game multiple times and make different decisions to progress the plot in an alternate direction. The game can end prematurely if the player makes the wrong decisions. When this occurs, the player must go back to a previously saved spot and choose different decisions.

For Ef, Minori attempted to create a movie-like experience, using a lot of animated two-dimensional computer graphics presented from various angles. Instead of presenting the visuals straight-on with a character's image in the middle of the screen and the character being the main focus, the character images in the Ef series are off-center and appear closer to "event" computer graphics (CGs) in typical visual novels. These types of CGs occur at certain pivotal times in a visual novel's story and are meant to be artistic and much more detailed than normal visuals.